Arizona Highways magazine describes Green Valley as the "town too good to die... populated by people who have learned how to live." Green Valley is one of the country's most beautiful retirement destinations as validated by the city's repeated accolades in magazines such as New Choices for Retirement and Where to Retire. Located just 25 miles south of Tucson and 145 miles south of Phoenix, Green Valley offers small town living with access to metropolitan amenities. Green Valley is rich in its historical and cultural heritage with evidence of old mines, Spanish homes, cattle ranches, and ghost towns still in the area. Although there is plenty to lure new residents and visitors, Green Valley's most attractive quality has to be its weather with average temperatures of 80 degrees. This sunny, attractive climate combined with Green Valley's rolling grasslands, desert, mountains, and canyons create the perfect environment for outdoor activities such as golfing, bird watching, swimming, horseback riding, and playing tennis. Green Valley's vistas are breathtaking but some residents also enjoy the stellar views available from the Fred Lawrence Whipple/Mount Hopkins Observatory and the Kitt Peak Observatory that make this area of Arizona known as the "astronomy capital of the world."